lawsuithttp://www.pfaw.org/
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:08:57 -0400Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:27:07 -0400New TBN Lawsuit Alleges Rape Cover-Uphttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/new-tbn-lawsuit-alleges-rape-cover
<p>Back in April we reported on a <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tbn-lawsuit-alleges-cover-sexual-and-criminal-scandals-paul-jan-and-matt-crouch-implicated">suit filed against TBN</a> &ndash; the right-wing televangelism powerhouse based in Orange County, California &ndash; by Brittany Koper, a granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch and a former senior executive at the organization. The <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tbn-lawsuit-alleges-cover-sexual-and-criminal-scandals-paul-jan-and-matt-crouch-implicated">suit</a> alleged &ldquo;multiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals,&rdquo; including a cover-up of a &ldquo;bloody sexual assault.&rdquo; A new suit, filed last week by Koper&rsquo;s 19-year-old sister Carra Crouch, sheds signficant light on the allegation.&nbsp;</p>
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<div>Teri Sforza, who has closely covered TBN&rsquo;s legal woes for the Orange County Register, <a href="http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/06/21/suit-alleges-tbn-covered-up-rape-of-13-year-old/157357/">broke the news about the suit</a>:</div>
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<div>A granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network founders Jan and Paul Crouch&nbsp;filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that she was plied with&nbsp;alcohol&nbsp;and raped by a TBN employee when she was just 13 &mdash; and that her family covered up the incident, rather than report it to authorities, to protect TBN&rsquo;s reputation.</div>
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<div>Carra Crouch, now 19, was distraught after the 2006 assault by a 30-year-old man, and told her grandmother what had happened. &ldquo;Jan (Crouch) became furious and began screaming at Ms. Crouch, a thirteen year old girl, and began telling her &lsquo;it is your fault,&rsquo;&rdquo; according to the suit.</div>
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<div>Carra Crouch then told John Casoria, TBN&rsquo;s in-house counsel and her second cousin; he became agitated and told her that he didn&rsquo;t believe her, it says. &ldquo;He elaborated by stating he further believed she was already sexually active &lsquo;so it did not really matter&rsquo; and he &lsquo;believed she may have propositioned him,&rsquo; &rdquo; the suit alleges.</div>
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<div>According to the suit, both Jan Crouch and Casoria are ordained ministers and therefore legally required to report such an incident. They allegedly failed to report the rape and prevented Carra Crouch from speaking with the police, a counselor, or any other third party.</div>
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<div>In 2006, Carra Crouch traveled with her grandmother Jan to TBN&rsquo;s spring telethon in Atlanta, where she was given her own hotel room. As Sforza <a href="http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/06/21/suit-alleges-tbn-covered-up-rape-of-13-year-old/157357/">reported</a>:</div>
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<div>The 30-year-old TBN employee, who Crouch had known for years, wound up in her room and ordered a bottle of wine from&nbsp;room service on Trinity&rsquo;s account (&ldquo;Trinity Broadcasting makes a regular practice of providing alcohol to its employees during business meetings&rdquo;), the suit alleges. He coerced her to drink it &ldquo;in an attempt to get her intoxicated,&rdquo; and she did, it says. She asked him to&nbsp;leave her room, and he responded by giving her a glass of water to &ldquo;help her feel better.&rdquo;</div>
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<div>Carra Crouch drank the glass of water and passed out immediately, according to the suit. When she awoke the next morning, the man was lying next to her, there was blood on the bed sheets, and she had &ldquo;severe pain and soreness in her body in places which indicated she had been molested and raped,&rdquo; it alleges. She locked herself in the bathroom and screamed at the man to leave her room, and returned to California that day.</div>
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<div>That glass of water, Crouch now believes, contained a date rape drug which caused her to pass out.</div>
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<div>TBN&rsquo;s attorney Colby May vehemently <a href="http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/06/21/suit-alleges-tbn-covered-up-rape-of-13-year-old/157357/">denied any wrongdoing</a> by TBN when contacted by Sforza. However, <a href="http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/06/21/suit-alleges-tbn-covered-up-rape-of-13-year-old/157357/">TBN did fire</a> the 30-year-old man shortly after Carra Crouch reported him to her grandmother and Casoria:</div>
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<div>Casoria, TBN&rsquo;s in-house attorney, &nbsp;fired him over the telephone, saying Trinity had gathered enough evidence to terminate him with cause, that the evidence was &ldquo;most probably sufficient to bring criminal charges&rdquo; against him, and that Trinity would not disclose the evidence to the police if he would not file for unemployment, worker&rsquo;s compensation or an Equal Employment&nbsp;Opportunity Commission&nbsp;claim, the suit alleges.</div>
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<div>Carra Crouch, until recently, worked at the TBN gift shop. She was <a href="http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/06/21/suit-alleges-tbn-covered-up-rape-of-13-year-old/157357/">fired</a>, however, as part of what she calls a sweep by Paul and Jan Crouch against family members who are close to her sister, Koper.</div>
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<div>We&rsquo;ll check in periodically on this suit and others against TBN. Stay tuned.</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>Josh GlasstetterC4CaliforniaJan CrouchlawsuitPaul Crouch TBNTrinity Broadcasting NetworkFighting the RightBrittany Koper40289Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:08:57 -0500lawsuitTBN Lawsuit Alleges Cover-Up of Sexual and Criminal Scandals – Paul, Jan and Matt Crouch Implicatedhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tbn-lawsuit-alleges-cover-sexual-and-criminal-scandals-paul-jan-and-matt-crouch-implicated
<p>A lawsuit filed in California Superior Court against televangelism powerhouse TBN (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Broadcasting_Network">Trinity Broadcasting Network</a>) threatens to blow the lid off alleged misconduct and criminal activity at the very highest levels of the organization. TBN, which advertises itself as the &ldquo;World&rsquo;s Largest Christian Network,&rdquo; is home to such luminaries as <a href="../../../../../../../category/people/rod-parsley">Rod Parsley</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGmLFSPkyhs">TD Jakes</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCS0YHm_58c">Creflo Dollar</a>, <a href="../../../../../../../category/people/john-hagee">John Hagee</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/18/benny-hinn-divorce-wife-s_n_468296.html">Benny Hinn</a>, <a href="../../../../../../../category/people/james-robison">James Robison</a> and the larger-than-life founders of the network &ndash; Paul and Jan Crouch, and their son Matt &ndash; who are a constant presence in front of the camera.</p>
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<div>The Crouches have invited criticism and scorn in the past with their lavish lifestyle and flamboyant appearance, but the new lawsuit paints a portrait of a thoroughly corrupt organization. The suit centers on Paul Crouch&rsquo;s granddaughter Brittany Koper, a former executive at TBN who was fired after she blew the whistle on alleged fraudulent and criminal activities. She claims that she subsequently faced massive retaliation, including threats of &ldquo;physical and lethal violence.&rdquo;</div>
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<div>The <i>Los Angeles Times</i> provided an overview of the case on Friday and focused on alleged <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/23/local/la-me-0323-televangelist-feud-20120323">self-dealing by the Crouches</a>:</div>
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<div>The lawsuit alleges that Paul Crouch Sr. obtained a $50-million Global Express luxury jet for his personal use through a "sham loan," and that TBN funds paid for a $100,000 motor home for dogs owned by his wife, Janice Crouch, a network director.</div>
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<div>The suit also alleges that TBN bought residences across the country for its directors under the pretext that they were "guest homes" or "church parsonages." The properties include mansions used by the Crouch family in Newport Beach; side-by-side mansions in Windermere, Fla.; and homes in Nashville; Miami; and Irving, Texas, according to the suit.</div>
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<div>While the $100k dog motor home is a pretty irresistible story (<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2007/06/romney-strapped/">Seamus Romney</a> must be so jealous!), the <i>Times</i> glossed over other portions of the suit that sound more like The Sopranos than Elmer Gantry. For instance, a section entitled &ldquo;Multiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals&rdquo; accuses TBN, among other things, of covering up a &ldquo;bloody sexual assault,&rdquo; infidelities by Paul and Jan Crouch, and repeated incidents in which Matt Crouch exposed his genitals to cleaning staff. </div>
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<div>I've included that section below, which mentions a legal settlement with Enoch Lonnie Ford. As <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/12/local/me-lonnie12">previously reported</a>, Ford, a TBN employee, was paid $425,000 to not discuss his alleged sexual encounters with Paul Crouch.</div>
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<div>When Koper refused to play along, she wasn&rsquo;t just sidelined within TBN. She allegedly faced threats of &ldquo;physical and lethal violence&rdquo; by Matt Crouch, and was told by Paul Crouch that Jan and Matt &ldquo;want your heads&rdquo; &ndash; referring to Koper and her husband, also a former TBN executive:</div>
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<div><img width="595" height="352" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/TBN-suit2.png" /></div>
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<div>TBN issued a <a href="http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/6307819299.html">press release</a> this morning in response to recent media coverage. Rather than address the substance of the suit, TBN&rsquo;s lawyer and attorney Colby May portrayed the Kopers as disgruntled former employees who stole from the network to enrich themselves:</div>
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<div>"The soundness and veracity of these stories are completely undermined when you realize that they depend almost exclusively upon accusations from individuals who admitted they had embezzled and misappropriated over $1 million from the network, and its companion ministry, International Christian Broadcasting," May explained. [&hellip;]</div>
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<div>"What the bulk of media stories don't explain is that these individuals used lawsuits to contrive absurd allegations that trusted TBN officials had illegally funneled millions of dollars for their own use," said May. "Add to that the fabrications that Dr. and Mrs. Crouch were using ministry funds to buy jewelry, jets, mansions, and mobile homes for dogs, and you have all the ammunition for a stereotypical attack against an esteemed media ministry."</div>
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<div>We&rsquo;ll be eagerly watching this case as it plays out. Koper has made explosive accusations against TBN and the Crouches, and the Kopers, as longtime insiders at TBN, are uniquely positioned to marshal evidence to back up their claims.</div>
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<div>Click <a href="http://site.pfaw.org/pdf/Joseph_McVeigh-v-TBN-complaint.pdf">here</a> to read the entire complaint against TBN.</div>Josh GlasstetterCaliforniacover-upfraudJan CrouchJanice CrouchJohn Hagee lawsuitMatt CrouchMatthew CrouchPaul Crouch Rod Parsley scandalTBNTrinity Broadcasting NetworkBenny HinnCreflo DollarFighting the Right39473Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:05:24 -0500lawsuit